Moments after I'd dropped a pair of shells into my over/under, a pair of quail flushed into the air from my left. I scored on both birds, and no sooner had I reloaded my gun than a couple of rabbits exploded from the bushes to my right. Just as I closed my gun on fresh rounds, more quail began to flush from the broomsedge. I managed to take all seven of the birds, but one of those wascally wabbits bounced high into the air just as I pulled the trigger, and I missed by a country mile.

A bit farther down the trail, wood ducks drifted in from over the tops of tall oaks and landed in a small pond in front of me. I had to take them quickly as they darted through the only opening in the trees directly overhead. Still later I opened fire on flushing partridges, springing chukars and rocketing grouse--blasting some, missing others. I ended up killing 86 of the 100 birds and rabbits I shot at. I easily did it all in one day, and the tab was less than it takes to fill the gas tank of my Suburban.

By now most of you know that I wasn't hunting at all but shooting sporting clays. Practice definitely makes perfect, and that's particularly true in wingshooting. Unfortunately, hunting seasons are short and bag limits small, so most shotgunners do not have the opportunity to get in a lot of shooting on feathered targets. And in the time between seasons, our reflexes atrophy from lack of use as the shotgun gathers dust in the corner. When opening day does finally roll around, the season is half over before you find your groove and begin to connect with any degree of consistency.

A bit of practice on the trap, skeet and sporting clays fields during the off-season can prevent that from happening. A detailed explanation of how each game is played would use up about every page in this magazine, so I'll merely hit the high points. And since I will be discussing each with wingshooting practice and not tournament shooting in mind, some of the things you read may not agree with the official rules of the games.

Sporting clays offers novel, ever-changing courses designed to imitate many of the shots hunters encounter in the field. It's the most challenging of the clays games.

SPORTING CLAYS
In sporting clays, no two courses are alike, and it's not unusual to fire 50 to 100 rounds when shooting a round. A good sporting course meanders for a mile or more through both wooded and open terrain and usually has 10 to 12 different stations that attempt to imitate some of the shots hunters get in the field. Descriptive names such as Rabbit Run, Springing Teal, Bobwhite Flush, Dove Attack, Thundering Grouse and Going-Away Ringneck give you a good idea of what the course designer was going for when he developed a station.

Sporting clays is comprised of up to five different sizes and shapes of targets. Claybirds range from the standard trap and skeet target to the mini, which is only 60mm in diameter and looks like a bumblebee flying through the air. Another target, called the rabbit, is basically a clay disk designed to resist breakage as it bounces along the ground.

Depending in the station, targets may be thrown as singles, as true pairs (both launched simultaneously) or as report pairs, where the second target is launched immediately after the first bird is fired at.

Most wingshooters agree that sporting clays is hard to beat for off-season practice simply because it does a fairly good job of simulating more of the shots we see in the field. But it does have its disadvantages. For one, it's considerably more expensive than trap and skeet, and clays courses may not be within easy reach of every shotgunner.

Skeet is good practice for dove hunting, among other things. The targets come out of the trap the same way each time, but the shooter's position changes.

SKEET
For practicing shots at certain shooting angles, skeet and trap are every bit as useful. If dove hunting is your thing, for example, shooting skeet from stations two through six will simulate about every shot you are likely to get in the field.

Think of a skeet field layout as the bottom half of a clock face with shooting stations located at roughly nine, eight, seven, six, five, four and three o'clock--with the target houses located at nine and three o'clock. The eighth station is situated midway between the two houses and in the center of the field.

In skeet, the targets emerge from the left-hand target house (called the high house) at an elevation of 10 feet; those thrown from the right-hand house (low house) emerge three feet above the ground. Targets thrown from the low house travel at an upward angle for about 25 yards before heading back to earth. Those coming from the high house fly a bit flatter at first, but they lose altitude quickly.

Shots in skeet are fairly close, the longest are about 25 yards. In a standard round you start with 25 shells, begin shooting at station one and work your way around to station eight. At stations one, two, six and seven, you will shoot a single target thrown from each of the two houses before shooting a pair thrown simultaneously from both houses. At each of the other stations you shoot singles only for a total of 24 shots.

A Smooth Move If you're serious enough about your shotgunning to head to the local range, you should also consider getting some expert instruction. I had the opportunity to participate in a clinic expertly taught by Gil and Vicki Ash of Optimum Shooting Performance. They're a fun, personable duo who can teach you a whole new way of looking at shotgunning, as well as reinforcing the mental fundamentals so crucial in any shooting game. Full-time professional shooting instructors, they're NSCA Level III certified and teach about 2,000 people a year in private lessons and group clinics. "You gotta be smo-o-o-oth," Vicki said to me after my second miss on a target I'd been powdering just a few shots ago. "Smo-o-o-th," she repeated, stretching out the word even more. The OSP school teaches that if you want to hit targets, forget the old saws "sustained lead" or "swing-through." Their credo is much simpler: Look at the target; put the gun where the target is going; and pull the trigger. And as I learned that day on the sporting clays range, it really works, and if I keep practicing at home (they teach a neat technique that involves a flashlight) and on the range, I'll be more than ready for dove season and quail season. The Ashes are based in Houston, Texas, although their clinics are held across the country. For more information, visit www.ospschool.com. Of course, there are many other shooting instructors and schools across the country. The point here is that if you really want to become a better shot, professional instruction can put you on the right track much more quickly. -- J. Scott Rupp

So what do you do with the 25th shell? If you miss a target prior to reaching station eight, it is used for shooting an optional target. If you have not missed prior to reaching station eight, the extra shell is used to shoot another single target from that station. Hit that last bird and you have experienced the holy grail of skeet shooting by "going straight" for 25 shots.

TRAP
I enjoy heading west each year to hunt ringnecks, sharptails and prairie chickens. Since most of those birds are taken as they fly away from the gun at various angles, nothing beats trap for keeping my shooting eye sharp.

Trap is our oldest clay target sport, and based on the number of shooters who participate in it each year, it is also the most popular. A trap field has five shooting stations spaced nine feet apart and located directly behind the trap house. The trap machine is located partially below ground level, and since the guns are pointed over it as the clay targets are shot, a protective concrete bunker usually encloses it.

The five shooting stations located nearest the trap are exactly 16 yards behind it. Aligned directly behind each of those stations are 11 additional stations marked off in one-yard increments back to 27 yards from the trap. In registered trap, beginners shoot from the 16-yard line; as their proficiency improves, they are moved back to one of the other yardages based on the average score they are shooting.

When shooting trap, all targets are thrown away from the shooter. A target might fly dead straight away or at various left and right angles as sharp as 22 degrees from the center of the trap house. The trap is set to throw each target in a trajectory ranging from eight to 12 feet above the ground and to a maximum distance of 52 yards from the trap house (or 68 yards from the closest shooting stations).

Most traps launch targets at about 45 mph, and since the machine automatically rotates in a random manner for each throw, the shooter never knows at what angle a target will be traveling as it flies from the trap house. The target is also rising sharply, adding to the challenge. Wind makes those little disks of clay perform all sorts of aerobatics, and the game becomes even more sporting.

In trap, you can shoot single targets (known as singles) or opt for two targets to be thrown simultaneously (called doubles). When shooting from the 16-yard line, most shooters break targets at about 35 yards from the muzzles of their guns. Up to five shooters can shoot in a squad, and all fire at five targets from each of the five stations for a total of 25 targets.

Only one shot per target is allowed in American trap. Each shooter rotates to the next station between each five-round string, and this allows him to take the same number of shots from each station during a complete round.

So what is a decent score for someone who has never shot clay targets? It depends on the shooter and the game. I recently watched a first-timer smoke 22 out of 25 birds on his first-ever round of skeet, but he had already been shooting doves for many years. I'd say a beginner who breaks 50 percent of the targets at skeet, trap or sporting clays has nothing to be ashamed of.

Most shooters average about the same score in skeet as they do in trap. I break about the same percentage of targets in trap singles as I do when shooting a standard round of skeet, but due to the higher levels of difficulty when shooting doubles in both games I usually miss about 10 percent more birds there. To me, sporting clays is more difficult than those two games, which probably explains why I miss about 15 percent more targets there.

Keeping an accurate score while shooting clay targets enables me to monitor my ability with a shotgun, but if doing so makes you uncomfortable, inform the trapper that you do not want to keep score.

If you encounter a station in sporting clays that appears to be unrealistic to the point of being no practice value to you as a wingshooter, feel free to skip it and shoot two rounds at another station you do like--but only if another squad of shooters is not waiting to shoot that particular station.

When shooting at stations where doubles are customarily thrown in skeet and sporting, you might want to request that all targets be thrown as singles. You'll have plenty of time to shoot doubles after learning the games and becoming more proficient at them.

Regardless of how you play the game and what game you prefer to play, shotgun games will re-train the muscle memory and hand/eye coordination so important in good wingshooting. So get out there this summer and have fun.